Mounting for a two-base electric tubular lamp



June 7, 1938. I K K. WIEGAND 2,120,121

MOUNTING FOR A TWO-BASBELEQTRIC TUBULAR LAMP Filed Dec. 25, 1955Ifiventor': ,Kurt Wiegand,

is Attorney.

Patented June 7, 1938 UNITED STATES.

PATENT OFFICE.

MOUNTmG FOR A TWO-BASE ELECTRIC LAltlP TUBULAR poration of New YorkApplication December 23, 1935, Serial No. 55,924 In Germany January 23,1935 3 Claims.

Two-base electric tubular lamps, namely such which have a luminous wirestretched out in the direction of their axis, are often arranged in anuninterrupted train lying together axially, in orderto form luminouslines, script-symbols, omaments, figures etc. Such lamp installations inthe first place necessitate the laying of current conductors from whichbranches lead to the mountings of the individual tubular lamps.

The object. of the invention is to build the mountings of such tubelamps in such a manner that the time of laying of the conducting wiresas well as the connecting of the mountings of each lamp of theinstallation is eliminated. For this purpose, according to the inventionthe caps of both two-part single mountings for a tube lamp are unitedinto a common structure by means of two conducting-rods or -wires whichserve to conduct current to and along the installations. The bare endparts of the conducting rods lie inside of the mounting caps. Themounting bases are equipped with attachment pins or attachment sleeves,so that additional lamps may be connected to the first one. Sincecurrent conduction toand along the installation occurs in this manner bymeans of the conducting rods, the otherwise customary separately laidcurrent conductors are unnecessary. In addition to this the relativeposition of the two singlemountings of one lamp are fixed.

With this construction of the mounting it is preferable that on one sideof each mountingbase a spring clip is arranged and on the other side ofthe same are two spring clips which are bridged only by the bare endpart of the inserted conducting rods. Thus, only when the cap-structureis inserted, is the current circuit closed, so that actually all dangerof touching current carrying contact parts is avoided during inserticnor exchange of a tube lamp.

On the drawing is shown, by way of example, a construction of the newmounting.

Fig. 1 shows one end of thenew mounting in a perspective view.

Fig. 2 is a cross section through the single mounting along line IIII ofFig. 3.

Fig. 3 is a longitudinal section through the single-mounting on the linelI[--lI[ of Fig. 2.

Fig. 4 shows the wiring diagram of adjacently placed mountings.

The tubular lamps to be mounted show the usual construction. They have acylindrical glass vessel I and a tungsten helical wire 2 which isstretched out in the axial direction of the latter,

55 which wire is carried by a support structure 3 and lies conductinglyagainst the metal discs 4- which are fused into the ends of the vesselI, or

are fastened to them. For each tubular lamp In the mounting which isarranged a spring clip I 4, which is con- 1 ductingly connected with asecondattachment pin 93.

Each cap of the single-mountings consists of a frontal wall 15, two sidewalls l6 and an areshaped cover-strip I! of narrow width. The two caps 6are united into a rigid structure by means of two conducting-rods or-wires. The conducting rods 18, 19, in their free length between thecaps, are provided with an insulating coating, their end parts 21,however, which lie in the recesses 20 of the caps 6, are not insulated.The frontal wall I5 of each cap 6 is further provided with two slots 22,23.

In placing the new mounting, the two mounting bases 5 are united withthe proper cap. structure while the bare end parts 2| of the conductingrods I 8, I9 are gripped by the spring clips 8, 9 or by the clip I 4 ofthe mounting bases. The entire mounting arrangement is then placedagainst the wall or against a wood strip 24 and both mounting bases 5are finally fastened by screws. Thereupon the cap structure 6, l8, I9 islifted 01f and the tubular lamp I is inserted between the contact platesII, which can occur without danger since the spring clips 9, which areconnected with the contact'plates H, .are not connected with theaccompanying spring clips 8. Thereupon the cap structure is put in placeagain and the lamp installation is then ready for operation, As manylamps as desired can now be placed together, as shown in Fig. 4,sincetwo single mountings of two adjacent lamps, which are placed withtheir frontal surfaces together, are always connected with each other bymeans of the attachment pins l0, l3 and the attachment sleeves l0, 13'.The connections to and along such an installation are shown in Fig. 4.The current which is conductedto the two spring clips 8 and 9 of eachmounting reaches the attachment pin and the next lamp by means of theformer and reaches the spring contact plate.

II by means of the second clip 9, so that the lamp receives current onlyafter the cap structure has been put in place. At the same time the clip14 of the mountings is connected to the current which is carried to theneighboring lamps through the connected attachment pins l0, I3.

As has been already mentioned, each lamp is connected with a potentialonly when the cap structure is put in place, so that when the capstructure is taken off, work can be done, without further ado, on themountings or on the lamps or the lamp itself can be exchanged. Thecontact protection of the new mounting is increased by the fact that thebare end parts of the conducting rods lie in recesses of the mountingcaps which are accessible only from the bottom, and the spring clips 8,9 and I lie in deeply cut grooves of the mounting bases 5.

In order to make the two conducting rods, which come to lie on bothsides of each tubular lamp, invisible to the observer, a reflector canbe placed between them and the tubular lamp} which also throws-forwardsthe light which otherwise would be radiated backward. a

The new mounting can also be used with equal success for sofilt lampsand for tubular lamps constructed in other ways.

What I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent of the UnitedStates is:

1. A mounting for a two-base electric tubular lamp comprising a base foreach end of the lamp, contact pins secured to one of said bases, contactclips electrically. connected to said contact pins and secured to saidone of said bases, contact sleeves secured to the other of said bases,contact clips electrically connected to said contact sleeves and securedto said other of said bases, a contact plate secured to each of saidbases for connecting the'two ends of said lamp, a contact clip connectedto each of said contact plates and secured to said bases, a cap ofinsulating material Ior covering each end of the lamp, and rods securedto said caps forming a unitary structure and having bared ends forconnecting said last named contact clips to one of said first namedcontact clips whereby electrical connection is completed to said contactplates.

2. A mounting for a two-base electric tubular lamp comprising a base foreach end of the lamp, a contact clip secured to each side of each ofsaid bases, a contact plate secured to each of said bases andelectrically connected to one of said contact clips on its correspondingbase and adapted to engage the opposite ends of the lamp, caps ofinsulating material adapted to cover the ends of said lamp, and a roddisposed 'on each side of said bases securing said caps together to forma unitary structure and having bared ends to engage the contact clips ona corresponding side of said bases completes the electrical connec tionsto said lamp.

3. A mounting fora two-base electric tubular lamp comprising a base foreach end-of the lamp, two contact clips juxtapositioned at one side ofone base and a single contact clip located at the other side of saidbase, two juxtapositioned contact clips located at one side of the otherbase in line with the single contact clip of the first mentioned base, asingle contact clip secured to the other base in line with the twojuxtapositioned contacts of the first mentioned base, a contact platesecured to each of said bases and electrically connected to one of saidjuxtapositioned contact clips on its corresponding bases and adapted toengage opposite ends of the lamp, caps of insulated material adapted tocover the ends of the lamps, and rods connected to said caps and havingbared, ends to interconnect the single and juxtapositioned contact clipson corresponding sides of said bases.

KURT WIEGAND.

